Dead Eyes
by A Kiss Before Dying
Summary: Post-ROTS, takes place during the events of "Force Unleashed." Rahm Kota's apprentice during the Clone Wars returns to find that he's lost so much more than just his sight. HIATUS - SEE PROFILE


**CHAPTER 1  
**_"Your focus determines your reality." _—Master Qui-Gon Jinn

Jedi Master Rahm Kota knew he was going to die.

It did not take him long to accept his fate; years of practice and meditation in the Jedi Temple had trained Kota's mind to abide by the Jedi philosophy, rigorously. He did not question why or wonder how his death would come; it merely was.

As Kota faced down his opponent, the Jedi Code echoed in his mind like a cruel reminder of what was to come.

_There is no emotion; there is peace._

After he and his militia gained control of the TIE fighter construction yard over Nar Shaddaa, Kota knew Vader would come for him; to believe otherwise was foolish. General Rahm Kota was many things—fierce, stubborn, proud—but naïve was not one of them. He could sense the Dark Lord's presence like a sinister veil draped over the starship, constricting him in a way only the dark side could.

_There is no ignorance; there is knowledge._

_He's just a boy,_ he thought as the two Jedi danced around each other in a deadly flurry of parries and blows. A boy, perhaps, but one who had been trained for nearly all his life in the ways of the dark side. Kota knew better than to underestimate Vader's apprentice simply because he was young; age was not a measure of power, especially amongst the Jedi.

_There is no passion; there is serenity._

Kota could see the hatred and fury burning in his opponent's eyes, a hatred that was seeped in the dark side. Even as he continued to duel him on the starship's control deck, the former general knew Vader's mysterious assassin held the upper hand; his attacks became more and more powerful while Kota grew weaker with each parried blow.

With a sudden, powerful flurry of strikes, the Sith apprentice caught Kota off guard, and the Jedi was thrown backwards as his opponent aimed a blast of Force energy at him. The powerful discharge rocked the starship, and it began to tilt and sway dangerously. The command center, wrenched from its position of orbit, plummeted towards the surface of Nar Shaddaa, its outer hull heating up as the it blazed through the atmosphere. Kota knew he had to end this soon, or they would both be killed.

From under the dark cowl shadowing his face, Kota's adversary sneered. He splayed his hands out in front of him, sending another wave of the Force flying towards his opponent. From where Kota lay prone on the ground, he could do nothing to deflect it; the blow struck him on the side and he was sent flying, slamming into the far wall with enough force to break bone.

His mastery of the seventh form of lightsaber combat, Juyo, allowed him to withstand the impact, and Kota recovered quickly, swinging his legs around as he fell to regain footing. As he Force-leapt gracefully to his feet, his opponent snarled, lunging forward with his crimson lightsaber drawn.

Their sabers locked, and Kota stared into the eyes of his enemy, searching for a way to gain the upper hand over the Sith apprentice. He reached out with wisps of the Force, probing, attempting to determine the Sith's fate.

"Vader thinks he's turned you, but I can sense your future, and Vader won't always be your Master. I sense only…"

The blood froze in his veins as Kota struggled to discern the boy's future through the Force. What he saw stunned him.

"…Me?"

Shocked at the revelation, Kota felt his strength waver and give out. His opponent did not hesitate; expression twisting into a mask of anger, the Sith apprentice forced their interlocked lightsabers forward, and Kota's weapon became his own instrument of destruction.

He could hear himself screaming even as the broad end of his lightsaber burned through the lids of his eyes and across the bridge of his nose, instantly cauterizing the scars. His world, already turned upside down, blurred in and out of focus; colors distorted, and he could no longer distinguish man from object. The disorientation lased for only a few moments as his sight gradually faded to black.

Moaning, Kota crumpled to the ground, one hand clenched over his disfigured face. His opponent held no sympathy for the fallen Master; both hands outstretched, the Sith grabbed Kota and lifted him bodily with the Force. He let his target struggle helplessly in the air for a moment before slamming Kota to the ground.

His opponent's outburst of the Force shattered the windows on all sides of the starship's control room, creating a powerful vacuum that drew everything not bolted down into open space. Kota scrambled blindly for a foothold, anything to keep him from being thrown into the atmosphere. In his weakened state, however, he was not able to hold on.

_There is no death; there is the Force._

Broken glass and debris from the smoking starship tumbled towards Nar Shaddaa with the fallen Jedi Master, and though Kota's eyes were gone, he could still see—still sense, through the ripples of the Force—his demise.

A cruel smile graced the Jedi's lips before darkness consumed him completely, and Kota's pain ceased.

From the starship's broken deck, Kota's opponent watched the Jedi's body tumble towards Nar Shaddaa. Kota's last words still echoed in the Sith apprentice's mind, but he dismissed them without a thought; the Jedi's cryptic phrase meant nothing to him now.

With a wave of his hand, he lashed out with a tendril of the Force and drew Kota's lightsaber to him. Catching it in his palm, he examined it without interest before pocketing it and making his way off the destroyed starship.

His master would be waiting.

* * *

The Force shifted. Ever so slightly, but still she felt it.

The air around her tightened, becoming almost suffocating; the edges of her vision blurred, growing dark and black, an endless void of shadows.

Then, unexpectedly, an echo of a whisper danced across her ears, the whisper of a voice she knew too well. Before she could decipher what it was saying, however, the sensation fled.

Rika's hand grasped the shoulder of her cloak in a mockery of pain, letting out a breath she was not aware of holding. She wiped the sweat droplets beading on her forehead with a trembling hand, trying to make sense of what had just occurred.

A human female just past her 21st year, Rika Drayen had short blonde hair, dull blue eyes, and was draped in a simple brown robe with the hood pulled up to shield her face. Sitting in the Mos Eisley cantina, she was obscure in every other way.

Being a Force-sensitive nonwithstanding.

However, not since the great Jedi purge had Rika had such a powerful connection with her powers, and the Force-induced 'vision' that had came to her could only symbolize one thing: Rahm Kota, the stubborn, rancor-headed Master she had not seen in years, was still alive.

There was no mistaking it; the sudden flare of Force energy she felt was his. Years of training with Kota as his apprentice during the Clone Wars had honed Rika's senses so sharply that, through the Force, she was able to sense her Master during times when certain emotions—anger, joy, sadness, pain—ran high. Many padawans and their Masters, and indeed, many Force-sensitives possessed this ability, and Kota had often been able to sense how Rika felt as well.

Yet not since the Jedi purge—not since Flame Night—had Rika felt anything from her Master.

During the devastating event referred to by the Jedi as Flame Night, Rika and Kota had been separated—she in the temple archives preparing for her final test before she reached the level of Jedi Knight, he away on Geonosis organizing his own militia for a recon mission as a result of the Clone Wars.

Because Kota did not trust the Empire's clone troopers, he was not amongst the other valiant Jedi Masters who fell during Order 66, and when he returned to the Temple in the aftermath of the Purge, Rika was nowhere to be found.

Fleeing to the Outer Rim systems was the only option left for the few remaining Jedi; any who survived were to be executed on sight, by orders of the newly arisen Darth Sidious. General Kota was no exception, and the fact that Imperial records wrote him off as dead only helped to aid in his disappearance.

However, unknown to him at the time, his apprentice had also fled.

Hiding out on the sparely populated planet of Tatooine was easy for a Force-sensitive like Rika. Dampening her use of the Force allowed her to live virtually unnoticed on the desert planet; Tatooine was littered with enough blonde-haired human females of her age to protect her anonymity.

It was a desolate existence compared to the life she once led in the Jedi Temple—made even lonelier in her Master's absence—but Rika knew she was well enough away from the prying eyes of the Empire to know she was safe.

Kota had assumed his padawan dead, and Rika, wary of using the Force should the Empire's Inquisitors sense her, had not dared to try and reach out to her Master.

Until now.

Rika leapt to her feet, abandoning her unfinished drink and dropping several creds on the table as she swept past, heading for the exit. Pressed two fingers to her ear, she turned her head into the cowl of her cloak to avoid being overheard and spoke sharply into the mic hidden beneath her hair.

"Garik! Ready the ship."

She listened impatiently to the radio static for several moments before a deep voice answered her demand.

"Prepping _Zaxias_ for launch. What's the rush?"

"We're leaving." Rika took the steps two at a time, emerging from the cantina and out into the settlement of Mos Eisley.

"What? What do you mean, _leaving_? Rika—" Garik began to protest, but she had already cut the transmission.

Tatooine's twin suns beat down on Mos Eisley as Rika strode through the cluttered desert spaceport rapidly, her brisk, lengthy strides drawing unwelcome attention from many of the port's various inhabitants. She squinted, one hand shielding her eyes from the glare of the two suns as she searched for the small transport shuttle she had named _Zaxias._ In the bustle of Mos Eisley's spaceport, it proved to be a difficult task, and she silently cursed Garik for not docking her ship in a more obvious location.

Rika could sense herself growing edgy and impatient, eager to be on her way; she inhaled deeply, using the soothing vibrations of the Force to calm her. Panicking would do her no good now.

Her Force-induced 'visions' of her Master had shown Rika almost nothing of Kota's current whereabouts, and searching the entire galaxy for him was not in her repertoire. However, it mattered little to her; Garik, her older brother, had proved to be an outstanding pilot, and Rika knew that she would be capable enough of "feeling" her Master out through the Force.

Given, of course, she was able to do it without attracting the unwanted attention of the Inquisitorius. But Jedi were not easily dissuaded, and as Rika strode towards the docking area where she hoped her shuttle was located, she knew she wouldn't be either.

_Master Kota… I am coming._


End file.
